Does anything show our culture’s decline more clearly than our current obsession with children swimming from Alcatraz to the mainland? Last year it was a 9-year-old. Now it’s a 7-year-old! A 7-year-old Dr. Seuss creature named Braxton Bilbrey! What’s next? Well, let’s see, 9… then 7… A 5-year-old! A 5-year-old will be next. And I won’t be surprised a bit when somewhere someone says, “That’s what I hate about America. They make 5-year-olds swim from Alcatraz to the mainland.” (Disclaimer to the one emailer who became enraged when I joked about this last year: I’m kidding! I think it’s great, and these kids are brave heroes. Okay?)